Alabama

LSU: reactions

I'm not really sure what to say about Auburn's 31-10 loss to LSU on Saturday. It's difficult to disagree with Gene Chizik's summation: "I'd say they beat us in about every phase of the football game, from the beginning to the end to probably everywhere in between."

The offense, statistically, was as bad as it looked. Auburn had but 193 yards on only 61 plays, a 3.2 yard-per-play average. I think I understand the problem with the offense, or at least part of it. Auburn simply isn't a good offense, but early in the season Gus Malzahn managed to hide that in a variety of ways. Most importantly, big plays -- going over the secondary on passes or putting people like Mario Fannin in position to make big runs on the outside -- hid the fact that Auburn just can't execute on a down-by-down basis.

Opposing defenses have figured that out. They play back and force Auburn to consistently make short plays work. Auburn can't do that -- Todd is much better passing downfield than he is short. Besides Adams and Zachary, none of the wideouts are able to step up and make the middle or long passing game work. As effective as the running game can be (and Ben Tate looked decent on his limited carries, considering how little help he got), eventually Auburn is faced with a long passing down they're not able to consistently convert. The offense isn't confident or skilled enough to hold things together when the going gets tough. The result is drops, bad decisions, etc etc: everything we've seen since the Arkansas game.

Additionally, on offense, like on defense, Auburn doesn't have the quality depth to go the distance in an SEC season. We already see a tired team out there. You can see that other teams are tired, too; Alabama and Florida looked ugly last week, but they've got depth that Auburn doesn't.

That's the only way to put together otherwise incompatible games. If that's not the case, what is? You can only assume that alien invaders have taken the places of the offensive players who looked so dynamic against Mississippi State, West Virginia, and Tennessee (and let's don't forget, for all the people who say Auburn hasn't got any coaching or that Malzahn's offense can't work in the SEC: it can, and it did, and Auburn looked much better on offense against Tennessee than did either the current number one or number two team in the country).

The defense were both better and worse than they looked. They did give up 31 points, but those came on scoring drives of 83 yards, 17 yards, 22 yards, 45 yards, and 70 yards. That's two "real" drives and another "half" drive. On the other hand the defense did give up 376 yards to a team that's been averaging 295 yards a game. Auburn made a bad LSU offense look like a good one.

Going into the season, everyone understood that offense and special teams would have to protect an already thin defense that would be even harder pressed by Malzahn's hurry-up offense. That simply hasn't happened. At least Eltoro Freeman finally showed up; even if he's seven games late, he was finally everything advertised.

Speaking of special teams -- at what point should Auburn try an onside kick every time? I am completely serious in bringing this up. If the opposing team is going to start at the 40 yard line even when Auburn squibs it, why bother?

It's been three tough weeks for Auburn fans. What looked like a 6-6/7-5 rebuilding year going into the season looked like it might turn into something special after that Tennessee win. Now it's turning back into a 6-6/7-5 rebuilding year. It's what everybody expected, but because of the early season promise that has become painful to accept.